John Quincy Adams (sixth President of the U.S.) was the son of John Adams (second President of the U.S.). He was the only President to be elected to the House of Representatives AFTER he served as President. For John Quincy Adams, the cause was more important than the title. After his election, he went right to work on his cause. He brought legislation, petition, and oral arguments, condemning the practice of slavery. He pleaded for its abolition. He became known as the hellhound of slavery. The problem was that he was bringing this before a very pro-slavery Congress. The pro-slavery members got so tired of him bringing up this subject that they passed a gag order banning him from bringing up any more anti-slavery petitions. He continued to do this for 13 years but with very little to show for it. A reporter came to him and said, why are you doing this? Why do you continue to fight with no progress? John Quincy Adams replied with the statement that perfectly described what our attitude should be in engaging our Government. Duty is ours, results are Gods. One year later, Congress lifted that gag order as the number of anti-slavery members started to increase. Did Adams see an end to slavery in his lifetime? No. He died on the floor of Congress after fighting a 17 year battle to end slavery and never seeing any results from his efforts. However, there was one two year term where he met a freshman Senator from Illinois. He mentored this new Senator, and their friendship grew to where this young man became a pall bearer at Adams funeral. Now this man was never re-elected to Congress again. In fact, he never won another Federal election until 1860 when he was elected President of the United States. Of course, you know the name of this man, Abraham Lincoln. He went on to enact the very same plan to abolish slavery that John Quincy Adams had kept alive for 17 years. Under Lincolns watch, the principles of the Declaration of Independence were finally realized for ALL Americans. God has the plan, we just have to be faithful to do our part. We have no idea who we may be passing the torch onto. Regardless of the results, we as Christians must continue to be salt and light to others. Regardless of how frustrating things may be, we must continue to do our duty and leave the results up to God.
Posted on: Sat, 09 Nov 2013 11:18:51 +0000
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